We have received this link from both Brucie and Sallie, two Dewees Island turtle volunteers. It’s a fascinating look at the behaviors of dolphins in captivity, blowing and playing with bubble rings for their own entertainment (and perhaps that of their viewers!) The video is put out by Seaworld, but it reminds us that we actually like South Carolina’s policy of keeping no marine mammals in captivity. In fact, the dolphin show at the South Carolina Aquarium involves going up to the rooftop deck and spotting any of the 10 or so resident pods of dolphins in Charleston Harbor.
We don’t know if they blow bubbles shaped like rings, but we get a rush out of watching our local populations of dolphins hunting near the shell banks, circling prey or frolicking near the ferry as we ride back and forth to Dewees. Twice this summer we were startled by dolphins arriving silently like torpedoes, once in only about 18 inches of water, on the docks and marshes on the back of the island. The sparkle of sunshine on the fins and sides of a diving dolphin never gets old!